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Boston and Cupertino, CA – December 15, 2011 — BzzAgent and Trend Micro have been selected as winners in the Best Use of Social Strategies category for the 16th Annual MITX Interactive Awards.

The annual Interactive Awards program is the largest awards competition in the country recognizing achievements in the creation of web and mobile innovations and emerging applications produced and developed in New England.  The MITX Award winners were announced in 26 categories - six “Best of” awards, including “Best of Show” and “Best Use of Technology” - at a sold out ceremony attended by more than 1,000 industry professionals held on December 5th at the Sheraton Boston.

BzzAgent, the social marketing arm of dunnhumby, partnered with Trend Micro, a global cloud security leader, to create a video contest entitled, “What’s Your Story?” that challenged youths in the U.K., U.S., and Canada to take a stand as peer educators, and be a part of the solution to online safety.  More than 140 videos were received from 117 countries from kids who talked about their experiences with Internet safety – the videos received 200,000 total views.

“BzzAgent is thrilled to be recognized by the New England tech community for our work with a valued client like Trend Micro,” said Dave Balter, CEO and Founder of BzzAgent. “Receiving this award truly validates the purpose of this campaign – how social media can effectively spread the word on the importance of ensuring Internet safety for kids.”

The contest and videos caught the attention of many prominent organizations who have supported the initiative, including Facebook, Yahoo!, the State Attorney General offices of Ohio, Michigan and South Carolina, and many leading youth online safety organizations such as Childnet International, Connectsafely and Common Sense Media.  A case study video can be viewed at http://u.bzz.com/trendmicro.

“Winning this award is a great honor and I want to thank MITX for recognizing our work.  It has been a wonderful experience working with the BzzAgent team to leverage social media and word-of-mouth marketing to help make ‘What’s Your Story?’ successful over the last couple of years,” said Lynette Owens, director, Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids & Families. “This recognition confirms the importance of our cause and the success of the campaign in showcasing a positive use of the Internet by young people. We look forward to continuing the campaign in 2012.”

Now in its third year, the contest invites anyone 13 and older to create and submit a video educating their peers about the risks on the Internet and how best to stay safe when engaging in online activities, including texting, instant messaging or social networking.  Check back with http://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.com for more information on 2012’s contest rules and timeline or follow the contest on Twitter @WYScontest.

“The MITX Interactive Awards are an opportunity to come together in celebration of the best and brightest digital marketing innovators in our community.  This year’s winners represent the kind of powerful, creative work that is moving our industry forward,” said MITX president Debi Kleiman. “MITX is so proud to honor the companies and individuals behind these outstanding achievements.”

Over 100 industry professionals representing various disciplines including creative directors, designers, technologists, online media representatives, investors and business professionals judged entries.

The 2011 MITX Awards were made possible by our wonderful sponsors. The 2011 MITX Awards Platinum Sponsor is PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Gold Sponsors are: Boston.com/The Boston Globe, DLA Piper. Silver Sponsors include adbeast, Atom Group, flashtalking, HireMinds, Onward Search, Putnam Investments, SapientNitro, ShareThis, Sitecore, Velir.

For the complete list of winners and other information please visit the MITX Interactive Awards Website.